When we evoke the spirit of the North American Revolution, to many people the image of George Washington crossing the Delaware comes to mind, proud, standing up on the boat with an epic pose. It is the icon that represents, in my opinion, that spirit of freedom that marked a special mention in the history of mankind as would the French Revolution or the Allied victory in World War II. Washington and freedom are two concepts that go together in the mind of every U.S. citizen. In the same way that for a Catalan the image of Minister Rafel de Casanova embraced to the standard of Santa Eulàlia, having fallen wounded by a Bourbonic bullet on the siege of Barcelona in 1714, represents our yearning to be free.
By losing the war, Catalonia was considered "conquered land" and its local laws and constitutions were cancelled -which were laws originating from the Middle Ages and with a profound social and historical significance. Catalan, as an official language was forbidden, Barcelona’s University was closed, Catalan secular institutions annihilated, even getting to the point that Catalans were only allowed to have a knife per family, such knife always supposed to be tied up with a chain to the kitchen table. This was the fear of the invading Spaniards, fear that the flame of freedom -the same flame that nowadays still burns sizzling in the Fossar de les Moreres in the heart of Barcelona, in honor of our fallen homeland heroes- would revive.
This is a fact that may surprise those who are not Catalan, but the National holiday every September 11th commemorates a loss, a defeat, a wound... Rafel Casanova falls and, with him, freedom and way of life for an entire nation which must undergo three centuries of unfair taxes, of domination and denial of its identity. In that war of succession to the crown of Spain, Catalonia took part and allied with the Archduke Charles, who opposed the French successor to the Phillipe of Bourbon throne . A bold gesture, just like all that end badly. But the fighting spirit to keep Catalonia’s personality was there, and perhaps could not have been otherwise.
Why do we talk about homelands, of freedom and of honor? This is the common ground between Washington and Casanova, between Washington and General Moragues, between the Boston Tea Party patriots and the ones who lined up with the troops from the Coronela Regiment entrenched and ready to repel the attack from the Duke of Berwick troops. Coronela’s troops were all simple men, town people, village artisans, farmers, men of industry and trade, none were privileged people, because they were all the same, the body of a people who wanted to be free.
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